There is a lot on the surface of 12 Strong that has been done in war films before, again and again. Grunt soldier characters act like they do in every other movie. Fire-fight sequences involve everyone we don’t care about falling down dead, and everyone that has been established as a character surviving despite being amid insurmountable danger. Themes of camaraderie and learning to think differently about your fellow man abound. Etcetera. Etcetera.
With this, there is plenty of scenes that play out, down to the lines themselves, exactly as you would expect.
Paddington 2 has a simple message, but one that is nevertheless easily forgotten. Be nice to people. Pay it forward. Yadda yadda. It sounds obvious, and it sounds like it would play saccharine in a children’s film about a naive little bear. But, for the second time, it doesn’t.
One could look at The Post, the latest from veteran director Steven Spielberg, and see a current and scathing indictment of executive authority to undermine freedom of speech vis a vis journalism, a critique of modern political decorum by way of an examination of the past.
DeKalb Elementary from director Reed Van Dyk is one of five films nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
The entirety of the short film DeKalb Elementary takes place inside of an administrative office of the eponymous elementary school. A man (Bo Mitchell) walks in and calmly proceeds to take out a semi-automatic rifle. Holding a woman (Tarra Riggs) hostage, he waits for the police to arrive.
The calmness of the characters involved may at first appear anachronistic to the plot that is unfolding, but the short plays out in what feels like a realistic way. This is accomplished through Continue reading DeKalb Elementary (2017) Short Film Review→
Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game is based on a true story; a true story told by a potentially unreliable narrator. Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a one-time Olympic contender, is under indictment for running an illegal gambling ring. Technically, she’s guilty (she wrote a book on the subject when she was in need of some money). All the same, the story is much more complicated than guilt versus non-guilt.
The story is complicated, but the movie makes it much more complicated than it needs to be. Sorkin jams into this 140-minute movie three storylines involving Continue reading Molly’s Game (2017) Movie Review→
The critical world has been abuzz over Gary Oldman’s Oscar-worthy performance in Darkest Hour. Sporting a physique more, dare I say, jowel-y, Oldman plays British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from his selection to his rallying of Parliament to support war efforts against Germany.
Clearly, Oldman is at center stage in Darkest Hour. His performance is certainly transfixing; he embodies Churchill with a mix of grumbling brutish, beady-eyed fury, and unexpected compassion. He could win an Oscar for his role, and it would not be undeserved. But Continue reading Darkest Hour (2017) Movie Review→
The conversation surrounding Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World has been louder than actual buzz for the movie has been. With the bold decision by Scott to replace Kevin Spacey but maintain the film’s original release date, re-shooting to put Christopher Plummer in the J.P. Getty role occurred over the course of mere weeks.
While this turnaround is certainly impressive, and much can be said about this film being saved from studio abandonment, this conversation outside of the text of the film should not determine how one judges the text itself.
My Nephew Emmett from director Kevin Wilson Jr. is one of five films nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
My Nephew Emmett dramatizes the events leading up to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American boy who was killed by two racist men for whistling at a white woman. It does this from an intriguing perspective, that being Till’s uncle Mose (L.B. Williams).
The Silent Child from director Chris Overton is one of five films nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
Libby (Maisie Sly) is a young deaf girl. Her family largely ignores her, as much as her mother (Rachel Fielding) keeps saying that Libby gets on well with them. When speech therapist Joanne (Rachel Shenton) enters the home, Libby begins to come out of her shell, but Libby’s parents are not as keen on the speech education that Joanne is performing.
The opening scene to The Villainess employs the same video game POV styling of Hardcore Henry, although here director Byung-gil Jung doesn’t mince any words.
While directed flashy, this opening scene benefits from its frenetic whip pans which hide some shoddy CG blood effects. Five minutes into the film, when the camera pulls back to reveal our protagonist for the evening—the almost mechanically ferocious Sook-hee (Ok-bin Kim)—the camera captures stunt choreography more successfully. Still, the whole scene remains overly frantic and shaky.
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